My graduation speech at Penn State

A message for the new scientists from the Eberly College

I had the honor of presenting the commencement address at Penn State for the undergraduates in the Eberly College of Science. My three themes were mental health, representation in science, and the need for all elements of the scientific enterprise. There are some references to a plastic doll. Here are my remarks:

We are!

[Penn State!]

We are!

[Penn State!]

Congratulations, Lions!

Each and every one of you is living proof that no one wants to go to college on a computer in their parents’ basement.

Although it was pretty funny when your professor fell asleep on zoom.

We’re so excited for you all that you made it to today.  It’s your day, enjoy every second of it.

You lived through some tough things in the world.  Global pandemic, international conflict, divisive politics, and not one, but two, of the hottest years on record.

Not to mention BMB 402 with Dr. Kao.

And every day, you navigated a campus with squirrels everywhere.

Many of them were dead.

A bear came to campus, which was scary at first, until everyone realized he just wanted to go to Champs and get a 3 Floyds Zombie Dust.

But despite all of these challenges, the scariest thing by far was Michigan cheating their way to a national championship.

Somehow, you got through it.  Another sign of your resilience.

You also lived through cultural phenomena.  Golden Bachelor.  Squid Game.  Tiger King. 

And many of you went back to a movie theater for the first time to watch a movie about a plastic doll.

There were many lessons in Barbie for us all, especially the polymer chemists in the audience who are still wondering whether life in plastic truly IS fantastic.

Today is fantastic in real life.  Enjoy it.

As Nobel Prize Barbie says, “I worked hard, so I deserve it.”

You do, too.

Graduation speeches usually have three points.  So here goes.

Nobody’s normal

I’m going to start with the tough parts.  Don’t worry, it will get more upbeat as we go on.  But I don’t think you can stand in front of this many college students and not mention the fact that we are in a mental health crisis among young people.  In a large survey conducted by the Healthy Minds Network of current American college students in 2022, 44% reported symptoms of depression; 37% symptoms of anxiety, and a staggering 15% said they had suicidal thoughts.  That’s a lot of people here today who are hurting.  Lots of folks – mostly people my age -- have tried to explain that this is all because of phones and social media.  Not me.  I can understand why anyone would be struggling given all that’s going on in the world, and I think the biggest reason is that we’re all trying to live in a society that has clung to an outdated and biased idea of what it means to be ‘normal’ that most of us can’t conform to.

You may notice that my hand movements and the lack of modulation in my vocal tone are a little unusual.  That’s because I have a form of autism that we used to call Asperger’s Syndrome.  Experts are still debating what we should call it now, and lots of famous and successful people have had this diagnosis.  But far more people with this diagnosis -- and who had autism but were never diagnosed, and therefore never given the supports they needed -- were much less fortunate, sometimes requiring constant care and exhibiting much higher rates of anxiety and depression than the general population.  And that’s partly because, particularly in some sectors of society, our awkward traits come with significant stigma. 

Now one reason I’m telling you this is so you know that if you have mental health struggles of your own, you can still be the speaker at the Eberly College graduation one day.  In fact, all of us up here in our robes with our fancy degrees may look completely together, but every one of us has had challenges just like you may be having. 

Mental health challenges can affect anyone, and the associated stigma is sadly wielded frequently.  When Simone Biles, the greatest gymnast of all time, had an anxiety episode at the Olympics, one pundit called her a “selfish sociopath” and a “shame to the country.”  Others said she was weak for not competing, even though doing a vault while having a panic attack could be deadly.  Would they have said these things if she had a broken leg?  No.  Some of the same folks are saying similar things about college students struggling with mental health.  Shame on them.  I know it’s hard, but try to tune it out. 

They don’t get it.

We now use the term neurodiversity to refer to a range of different ways of thinking.  That’s good.  In fact, my colleague at George Washington University, Roy Richard Grinker, has made the case that we all have some degree of many conditions.  The title of his book is Nobody’s Normal.  “The spectrum is an invitation,” Grinker says.  “It asks us to say…that both normality and abnormality are fictional lands that no one actually inhabits.”

It's fun to think of a day when we could accept that nobody’s normal and stop messing around with these labels. After all, we will all face hardships in life, physical and mental. So even if you think you are normal, please remember that nobody’s normal forever.  And find people you can associate with who understand that mental health is health, that differences can be assets, and that you can decide when you need support. 

And if you’re not struggling right now, hug someone who is.

As Barbie says, “the real world is forever and irrevocably messed up.”

It matters who does science

We can’t let stigma and lack of access to resources keep people with mental health challenges out of making the world better.  But we also need every other kind of person.  For too long, science has failed to produce a workforce that represents the people it serves.  Many of you probably never had a professor who looked like you.  That must be very lonely.  It’s a systemic failure of academia and the scientific enterprise. 

I’m sorry.

And not only does it let you down, but it also lets science down.  Science is a messy human process that converges on the truth.  And these messy humans are all subject to motivated reasoning that causes us to sometimes find things we are looking for that aren’t there.  If everyone doing science has the same background, those biases are amplified.  But if groups of scientists bring different backgrounds to their work, they’ll have different biases and will converge on the truth faster.

Make no mistake:  it matters who does science.  Examples abound in history, and we are facing perhaps the greatest test now with artificial intelligence.  Because AI produces outcomes that are a function of how it is programmed and what data are used to train it.  If the programmers and the data don’t represent all people, the AI algorithms that will increasingly shape our lives will just reinforce the biases that we are already experiencing. 

We need to hurry up and improve representation in science, and we need to stop enforcing norms that were set when the only people in science were folks who looked like me – it’s hard enough to be a scientist without being allowed to be yourself.  And we need those of us in the majority to recognize that while we did work hard to get here, we benefited from the bias in the system.  If we can’t do all of this, research will take longer, consensus will be less robust, and instead of building machines that level the playing field and make life better for all, we’re going to end up building machines that maintain the status quo and only make life better for the folks who are already doing well.

You’re all scientists

Fortunately, we’re going a long way toward all these goals today because all of you are graduating! 

Look at all of these scientists!!

You may be saying to yourself – well, I didn’t do original research, I’m not going to graduate school – am I a scientist? 

Hell yes, you’re a scientist!

Because you braved gen chem and calculus on zoom -- and BMB 402 in real life.  And you’re about to get a piece of paper with a bunch of academically pretentious signatures on it that makes it official.

But the truth is -- you don’t need that piece of paper.  Because you’ve been asking questions and reaching conclusions about how the world works your whole life. 

And you don’t have to work in the lab to be a scientist.  In fact, producing more knowledge in the laboratory is kind of the least of our problems.  We don’t just need great bench scientists.  We need people in science policy, science teaching, science communication, science journalism, and more.  If you go into these things, you don’t give up being a scientist.

Walter Massey was a theoretical physicist who went on to be the first Black director of the National Science Foundation, the President of Morehouse College, and much more.  He could have had a great career sticking to theoretical physics, but when he saw Martin Luther King, Jr. murdered, he knew he needed to do more for the country.  He stopped doing physics and started leading important institutions.  But he never stopped being a scientist.

He told the New York Times that if you ask him who he is now at age 85, he’ll say, “I’m a physicist.  And I don’t say, ‘I used to be.’”

Same goes for all of you, even if you get out of science altogether.  You are scientists and you always will be.  And you will find a way to make the world better.

Remember what Ruth says to Barbie, “Humans only have one ending.  Ideas live forever.”

You’re right on schedule

Now some of this talk about changing the world that always shows up at graduations might make you uneasy.  Some of you might not have your grand plan worked out.  If that’s the case, you’re right on schedule.  Most of you who do have a plan are going to change it multiple times in your life, anyway.  I never thought I would be the editor of Science, and most of the people on this stage are not doing what they thought they’d do when they were sitting where you are. 

So don’t worry if you don’t have it all figured out yet.

As Gloria tells Barbie, “That’s life.  It’s all change.”

Remember, no matter how challenging things get, you can still come back to the Berkey Creamery and get an Alumni Swirl.

So those are my three things. 

If you’re worried you’re Weird Barbie, remember, nobody’s normal.

If you’re worried you’re not Stereotypical Barbie, remember that it’s who you are that matters.

And if you’re wondering whether you’re Science Barbie, remember that you’re all Science Barbie.

So if someone says you’re beautiful, just say “I know.”

Let’s try it.

You’re beautiful!

[I know!]

You’re beautiful!

[I know!]

Now you’re ready for anything.  And remember, no matter what life throws at you, there’s one thing you can always cling to:  you never have to log on to LionPATH again.

Congratulations to the class of 2024!

We are!

[Penn State!]